Introduction
Ether, ethereum, ethereum upgrade... You may have seen articles or reports on these terms in different media, or be curious about the differences between them. This lesson will take you through Ether, starting from the most basic fundamental concepts.
What is Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open source, and public blockchain with smart contract capabilities, and a technology that supports holding assets, conducting transactions and communications, and building applications under conditions that are not controlled by a centralized regulator. Users are not required to provide any personal details to use Ether and control their own data and what they share. Ethereum has its own cryptocurrency, Ether($ETH), which is used to pay for the fees generated by performing various activities on the Ether network.
The Birth of Ethereum
Ethereum was founded in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin. Vitalik was exposed to bitcoin and blockchain before creating ethereum, and his mother's work as a computer scientist also gave him an edge, allowing him to quickly show expertise in programming and show interest in cryptocurrencies, blockchain. vitalik left university and has been involved in Vitalik has been involved in cryptocurrency events around the world and has discussed and interacted with many industry professionals. During his studies, he also realized that blockchain could be used not only to transfer funds without third-party intermediaries, but also to exploit its decentralized nature in more ways than one.
In November 2013, Vitalik released the original white paper on Ethereum using Bitcoin-based code in which a number of people, including computer scientist and later Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, expressed interest and offered various help in creating the project. In order to obtain funding to quickly build a large network including developers, miners and other stakeholders, an ICO was held in July 2014 and managed to raise about $18.5 million in a month. By July 2015, the Ethereum blockchain was officially launched.
What is ETH?
Ether, a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin and the currency used in Ethereum, is usually represented by ETH. ETH acts as a decentralized, open cryptocurrency that allows anyone to trade ETH using an Internet connection and wallet, without having to go through a bank account.
ETH is the essential lifeblood of the Ethernet network, whether sending ETH directly or using the various applications on the Ethereum network, a fee is paid using ETH. This fee is used as an incentive to reward block generators and validators who process and validate operations. These verifiers act like record keepers for Ethereum network, checking and certifying that no one on the network is cheating. Validators are randomly selected to propose blocks for transactions. In addition to receiving a fee as a reward, the verifier also receives a small amount of newly issued ETH as a reward.
Often people confuse Ethereum with ETH. Ethereum is blockchain and ETH is the native asset of Ethereum.
The Importance of Ethereum
The Ethereum network has now grown from a single blockchain to an integrated blockchain network with a market capitalization of over $200 billion and supports numerous decentralized applications (DApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other projects, the core of which can not be separated from smart contracts.
A smart contract is a protocol designed to transmit, validate or enforce contracts in an informational manner. Smart contracts allow trusted transactions without trusted intermediary third parties, which are traceable and irreversible.
A smart contract on the Ethereum network is a program that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, which is actually a set of code (its function) and data (its state) stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
Smart contracts are also Ethereum account types that are deployed on the network and run as designed rather than managed by the user; instead, the user's account can interact with the smart contract by submitting transactions that perform the functions defined by the smart contract. Smart contracts, like traditional contracts, can be programmed to set rules and execute them automatically. However, due to the nature of blockchain, smart contracts are inherently irreversible and can not be deleted by default.
Disclaimer
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Crypto investment involves significant risks. Please proceed with caution. The course shall not be considered investment or financial advice.